| Archive for SLMC Second LifeŽ Music Community Forum |
| Thaumata Strangelove |
streaming live with mac + garageband?Hey all. I've managed in the past to run nicecast to stream itunes to my private land for just a couple of people. i'm thinking about having some salon style concerts in my living room with my piano and some friends, but i'm not really sure the best way to do it.if i open nicecast, can i just also run garageband and play from there like usual? can anyone suggest a better audio program than GB? the piano patches in there seriously suck. 
who do you recommend for a server for when i have more than a couple to play for? is there anything else i should know that might trip me up? i'm fairly technical and can/will follow directions, but i've never tried running an instrument through SL before and usually don't have much time to mess around with it. thanks.
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| Nad |
You can use Garageband with nicecast - just select it from the thingy that comes up when you click the Source button. I use Garageband to broadcast from, and dont know of a better alternative. However any program that can mix your music and your microphone can be the Source for your nicecast broadcast. The thing you need to watch for is that Garagemand itself doesnt overshoot its meters - and after that that the nicecast volume sets the level listeners hear. It's good to have help with that step =- someone who has ears listening to you as you adjust the nicecast volume. Garageband tends to shoot the meters quite easily so jsut watch for that.
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| Chronic Skronski |
Digital clipping is unpretty. |
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| Silas Scarborough |
Re: streaming live with mac + garageband?
Using GB: Yes, Nad had it dead on. So long as your levels are good in GB, you'll be fine over the stream but give yourself lots of headroom as GB's meters aren't all that strong. Piano sounds: Native Instruments has all kinds of synth plug-ins. The Pro-53 emulates a Prophet 5 and sounds pretty cool. You might want to check out http://www.macjams.com/ for tips on accurate piano sounds. There are loads available and lots of MacJammers to talk about them. Jamie Otis provides streams for $4000L per month and you can choose Icecast or Shoutcast. I've been using an Icecast stream from him for ages and have been well-satisfied with it. Headphones: You'll never get a decent vocal sound without headphones as it's virtually impossible to balance your instrument and your voice if you're monitoring through the monitors on your audio interface. I hate using headphones but finally got fed-up battling feedback and went over to them. |
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| Nad |
Yeah, I use Sony MDR-V6 which are way accurate. Though they're over the ear (circumaural) I don't have any weight issues, but they do tend to get hot. There are more sexy circumaural sets for lots more money but I haven't heard any that beat the accuracy of these sets that are very widely used in the indu... er places what use headphones a lot where accuracy matters and a goal is sound isolation. You may already have headphones or ear buds - either will work just fine so long as the sound doesnt leak out of your ears and into your mic, *grin* but I refuse to involve myself in open discusions about microphones cause the next thing you know yer srcappin about sound boards and external synthesizers and mixers and yer like dayam I spent all this money on this shit and ppl keep tellin me I got the wrong stuff... I had my investment in stuffage made already due to my recording thingy, and I spose that if I was starting from near scratch I wouldn't get too carried away, because the objective here is to broadcast a clean 128 bit stream, which isn't at the upper end of the sound quality spectrum, though totally sufficient for credible online presentations. I'm not sure I'd welcome a higher stream bit rate as the increased dynamic range and stuff would mean you'd be able to hear the saliva drippin offa Silas' molars as he crooned which (imo) would only provide distraction from his awesome performances. |
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| Morris Dawes |
streaming live with mac + garageband? (for teaching a class)I'm new to streaming and new to SL.I'm a performer in RL (Jazz Guitar) and at some point I'd like to try performing in SL. But the main thing that I want to try is to teach Guitar Classes in SL. I planning to use GarageBand (or Logic) to mix my microphone (for speaking), my Guitar and some Backing Tracks. Then I want to go to NiceCast and then stream to the land I'm renting in SL..... This has gone pretty well so far. I've gotten things to sound good in GarageBand and I've gotten NIceCast to stream into my Land in SL. But, it's monitoring that I'm worried about. I noticed that there was about a 12 second delay between when I played (or spoke) and when I heard it out of SL. So, I wound up hearing everything twice. Is it simply a matter of turning off the audio stream (that I would hear) in SL and just monitor from headphones what I'm playing (instead of monitoring from SL)? But, what if I wanted to hear a student who was using voice chat? How could I keep monitoring my feed (Garageband) and hear a student. I guess I'm confused about exactly everyone sets thier rigs up when they do music in SL... Any ideas? Thanks, Morris Dawes in SL Morris Acevedo in RL http://www.morrisacevedo.com |
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| Zak Claxton |
Re: streaming live with mac + garageband? (for teaching a cl
Do NOT monitor in SL. Only monitor your input. The delay will be from 15 seconds to 45 seconds or more. Turn off your volume in SL.
That's a problem. I don't have a solution. Also, you do know that to send audio to more than 1-2 people, you'll need to rent a stream and not just use your local host in Nicecast, right? Keep in mind that when you go through an outside server (as we must to do shows in SL), your latency of your signal will be even longer. |
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| Jojamela Soon |
Re: streaming live with mac + garageband? (for teaching a cl
You can turn down/off just the stream feed in SL in preferences and turn up the voice volume, that way you won't hear yourself twice but will be able to hear anyone speaking in voice. |
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| Zak Claxton |
Re: streaming live with mac + garageband? (for teaching a cl
See? I knew someone with a more coherent brain than mine would have a solution. 
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| Bibi Book |
Usage of garageband or other software together with nicecastJust for tip:Open "Acivity" and mark the meters to be displayed (you can also install meters, which displays the CPU usage in menu bar). If the bars go to the top, then you need too much ressources and you computer cannot handle all of it. But I guess, nicecast, GB and S on one machine may not work well in most cases. You can reduce the SL settings like I advise musicians in the notecard I give to them. But even then SL still is a monster (especially, if there are many textures in region). |
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| Morris Dawes |
ThanksMan, I just gotta say how great it is to find such a nice community of people since I've been in SL (about 6 weeks). I don't recall the last time I found a group of folks who are nice enough to help a new person. : ) Thanks so much. I know I'll have many more questions.Such as.... OK.....I've figured out how to stream to my rental plot in SL from my computer using NiceCast. But at somepoint I'll try to do a real performance at a real performance space in SL. -Does the owner of the performance venue take care of the "serving" of the stream that I send so that it gets out to all the people at the venue? -Do the venue owner charge a fee for each performance? -About how much would that be if that's the case? I think I may be getting off the topic of my original post about streaming with GarageBand and Nicecast. Let me know if I should move this post to another spot. Morris |
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| Morris Dawes |
Thanks for the help...Glad to be hereThanks for everyone's help.Gald to find this place !! Morris |
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| Jojamela Soon |
Re: Thanks
The venue owner or representative will set the stream on the parcel for you. Some have stream setters but should give instructions before any performance. Some venues have their own streams and will provide you with that information.
/me sighs and thinks to herself "wouldn't that be lovely" Actually, I've seen one advertisement for a "rental" venue but am not sure how that is working. As a brand new musician to SL you may want to hit some of the open mics that are going on all the time and get some experience.
you may want to check some of the FAQ threads, tons of info there. |
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| Zak Claxton |
Hey Morris, how many live shows have you seen so far? I found my best education was going to a handful of shows with different performers/venues and getting the vibe, and then going back and testing the waters for myself afterwards. | ||||||
| Morris Dawes |
streaming live with mac + garageband?Thanks,Yea, I've been to lot's of performances in SL in the audience. But I've never played myself. That's why I was asking the questions about what to do after I have set up my computer to stream the audio out into the internet. I can set my land to get the stream and it you were at my land you would hear it. But I did not know how it's handled at a real performance venue in SL. I was unclear about how the stream would be handled by the venue so that it could be heard by several avatars. I'm still unclear about how, how much and when the artist would pay for the streaming that would allow a large audience to hear the music. I suppose that when I find a venue that I wanted to perform at, the venue owner would tell me how it would work and how much it would cost? But, I thought maybe you all would know if there was a "standard" way it works in all the venues. best, Morris |
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| Zak Claxton |
Re: streaming live with mac + garageband?
Morris, here's how it works on a general basis. - You do not pay for the stream at a venue that runs its own stream. It is provided by the venue. Before your show, the venue owner or manager will send you three things in a notecard... a stream URL, a port number, and a password. - You work out your deal with the venue owner/manager beforehand. Some venues pay artists to play at their venues, and others allow you to put out a tip jar. And sometimes it's just free, like at open mics. But you don't need to worry about PAYING for your stream at any venue I've ever played. - If you are playing at a place that does not have a stream, you can use one of many private services that residents have set up in SL to rent a stream. You rent by the time period you need it, from 1 hour to 1 month or beyond, and from 10 listeners to 100. Rates varyt depending on what you need. But for most shows, you will not need to do this. The venue owner gives you the use of their stream, as referenced above. I would highly recommend trying to play at an open mic first, which will give you the experience of polugging in the venue's stream and getting the SL performance thing wired. Did that help? |